AT THE INTERSECTION OF SECURITY AND REGULATION: UNDERSTANDING THE DRIVERS OF ‘DE-RISKING’ AND THE IMPACT ON CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS, HSC and ECNL
(March 2018)
Non-profit organizations (NPOs) around the world are impacted by
issues of financial access – inordinate delays in cash transfers, onerous
due-diligence requirements, inability to open bank accounts and
arbitrary closure of bank accounts – collectively classed as ‘de-risking’
activities by financial institutions. This study examines the drivers of
this de-risking, situating it at the intersection of frameworks for security and regulation.
It looks at how global regulations on money laundering and terrorism financing, for instance,
permeate policymaking, influencing institutions (perversely, at times) and negatively impacting
humanitarian and development work. By delving into the practices and perspectives of relevant
stakeholders – NPOs, financial institutions, governments, regulators and international
organizations – the study unpicks the mechanisms of governance and accountability
involved in and through the chain of decision-making, underscoring the policy incoherence
that is manifest along the way. The three country contexts chosen for the research – Brazil, Mexico and Ireland – help amplify the complexity of the issue and the potential search for solutions.
Ongoing remedial measures addressing the financial exclusion of NPOs are highlighted and
potential remedies that could challenge the current practice of de-risking are explored in detail.

COMBATING VIOLENT EXTREMISM WITH A HUMAN
SECURITY APPROACH
Human Security Collective (HSC) is part of a consortium that has been
granted a three-year project (September 2016 onwards) by NWO-WOTRO
under a call for 'Comprehensive Approaches to Human Security in Fragile
and Conflict Affected Settings: Transnational Dimensions'. The project aims to demonstrate
the impact of a human security approach in Palestine, Egypt and Iraq that addresses the root causes of violent extremism as a transnational threat.
The consortium combines the expertise of a research partner (Clingendael Institute, the
Netherlands), us, HSC, as the learning exchange and capacity building partner and 3 practitioner
partner organizations (Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, Egypt, The Center for
Democracy and Community Development, Jerusalem and the Strategic and Political Research
Centre of the Salahadeen University, Iraqi Kurdistan).
The objectives of the project include:
• Validating the push/pull factors of radicalization;
• Gaining context-specific insights into how Human Security (HS) is defined;
• Providing insight into conditions for engagement (communities and security stakeholders);
• Producing evidence on how this engagement leads to joint analysis and implementation of an
HS-approach in Countering Violent Extremism (CVE);
• Producing context-specific evidence on how an HS-approach can prevent Violent Extremism
(VE);
• Demonstrating impact of the HS-approach to policymakers with actionable pointers;
• Providing insight into the context-specific roles of women in CVE
• Developing effective CVE-policies based on an HS-approach that diminish the support base
for VE in communities (multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder).
The overarching research question is: ‘Can a Human Security approach effectively
address the drivers of violent extremism?'
For more on the project, go to the project website here.